Freud Flashcards
Background of the psychodynamic perspective - different levels of consciousness
Conscious: immediate awareness
Preconscious: accessible memories
Unconscious- repressed trauma
Background of the psychodynamic perspective - ways the conscious reveals itself.
Slips of the tongue Free association (lay on the couch and encouraged to speak out loud all of their thoughts). Projective tests (inkblots in the Rorschach test).
Background of the psychodynamic perspective - drives
Eros- life (survival, pleasure, and reproduction).
Thanatos- death (aggression).
Background of the psychodynamic perspective - three parts of the personality.
Ego- reality (reality principle)
id- instincts (pleasure principle)
Superego- morality (moral principle)
Background of the psychodynamic perspective - the significance of ego anxiety.
This occurs when the ego cannot resolve the conflict of the superego and the id.
This can result in mental health problems.
Background
What is the psychosexual development theory?
What are the 5 stages?
-These describe how sexual impulses are present in the new born child and they seek satisfaction through their own body.
Stage 1- oral
This can manifest through thumb sucking as a replacement for the sensation of breast feeding.
Stage 2- anal
This manifests usually during potty training when children keep their excrement inside them until they feel contractions.
Stage 3- phallic 2-5 yrs
Start to see difference in female and male bodies.
Boys fear girls were castrated for playing with their penis.
Oedipus complex- sexual desire for mother and father figure is a rival they wish could disappear.
Stage 4- latency
Interest diverted to sport, friendships, hobbies etc…
Stage 5- genital onset of puberty
Intensity of sexual desire increases and they move their desire onto other people who resemble them.
Aim for the study
Provide evidence for psychosexual development theory using psychoanalysis of dreams and fantasies of a child ‘Little Hans’ with nervous disorder.
Research method?
How can it also be seen as an example of action research?
Longitudinal case study.
Case study of a boy known as little Hans who was aged 3-5 during the time of research (elapsed around 3 years of time).
Action research- research conducted in the course of your occupation in order to improve practice.
Sample and sampling method
Self-selecting
Freud put out a call asking for friends and supporters to send info about their children’s development. Freud was particularly interested in Hans as he was brought up with ‘minimal force’ and was a lively, cheerful baby.
Hans was not quite 3 when the study began and the reports on Hans lasted from around 1906 to 1908. He was from Vienna, Austria.
Data collection method and procedure.
Observations and interviews (conversations) by Hans’ father.
- Hans’ father recorded details of Hans’ behaviours and conversations, and made his own interpretations. He would then send these in a weekly letter to Freud.
- Freud replied with his own interpretations of the behaviours and conversations, and would give guidance on what Hans’ father should be discussing with Hans, and which behaviours to look out for.
- He only met Hans once during the study.
1: Little Hans’ phallic stage
Just before he was 3 little Hans developed a fascination with his penis which he called his ‘widdler’. He would play with it at home and at the zoo he took interest in the widdlers of the animals he saw, and later drew pictures of them. While watching his mother dress one day he noticed that she didn’t have a widdler. When he asked her about it his mother said ‘of course I don’t, didn’t you know that?’. Just after Hans’ turned 3, his mother said to him ‘stop playing with it or I’ll get Dr.A to cut it off’.
- Little Hans’ Oedipus complex.
Resolving Oedipus complex.
Castration anxiety- the fear of enjoying his penis will lead to it being cut off.
One day, when his mother was powdering him after a bath and taking care to powder around his penis, Hans said ‘why don’t you put your finger there?’ (Referring to his widdler.)
Another time Hans climbed into his mothers bed and said “do you know what Aunt M said? She said ‘he has got a dear little thingummy”’.
Freud claimed these were attempts to seduce his mother.
Hans went away with his mother for summer but when they returned home and saw his father, Hans both kissed him and hit him. Freud claimed this is because he genuinely liked his father but also saw his as competition for his mother and wanted him dead.
Also during this period his mum gave birth to a younger sister Hanna. Hans didn’t want a sister because it was another person who’d steal his mum from him. He developed a fear of baths. Freud believed this was an unconscious want to drown Hanna or his mum wouldn’t love him anymore and let him drown. Another explanation could be that young children can be frightened of water.
Resolving Oedipus complex:
Hans had a fantasy that a plumber came and removed his behind and widdler with a pincer. The plumber gave him a new widdler (that his dad interpreted was bigger) and behind. Hans’ interpreted it as Hans now identifying with his father + resolved the Oedipus complex.
Resolving Oedipus complex:
Hans was playing with his imaginary children. He explained to his father that his mother was the children’s mother and his father was their grandad. This fantasy Freud said determined his father was no longer a threat and the Oedipus complex was resolved.
Hans’ phobias and fantasies
Horses and plumber
Explanations
Hans overheard a father saying to a child ‘don’t touch the horse or it will bite you’. Hans became afraid of being bitten by horses which was a problem as he lived opposite a warehouse with horses so he no longer wanted to leave the house to play (which he used to enjoy doing).
Freud said this was a fear of castration.
Hans once saw a horse fall over when it was carrying a cart. The cart was loaded with objects that spilled out everywhere when the horse collapsed.
Freud said this represented his mother giving birth. He was afraid of more siblings.
Hans’ father asked him “when the horse fell down, did you think of your daddy”. Hans replied “perhaps.yes. It is possible”. This was seen as a desire for his father to die so Hans could have his mum to himself. However it was a leading question, so young Hans might have just said yes because he thought that was what he was mean to say.
Hans had two plumber fantasies:
1: plumber took a big borer + stuck it into his stomach.
2: plumber removes his bum and widdler with pincers and replacing them with bigger versions.
Explanation: Hans’ desire to be like his dad + overcome castration complex.
Hans’ dreams
Hans had a dream about two giraffes. A big one and a ‘crumpled’ one. As Hans takes the ‘crumpled’ one away the big one calls out. Then Hans sits on top of the crumpled one until the big one stops calling.
Freud said this was him taking his mother from his father. The big giraffe was his father and the crumpled one was his mother.
Hans’ fascination with lumf.
Explanation and alternative explanation.
Recently moving away from the anal stage, Hans was preoccupied with his faeces or as he called it ‘lumf’.
His father had reported that Hans had made an imaginary friend called ‘Lodi’. His father said that Lodi sounds like the German sausage, Saffalodi. Sausages resemble faeces or lumf, and to Hans’ father this was another feature of his obsession.
Alternative explanation: he’s having trouble with his stools- suffering constipation until food intake was reduced under medical guidance.
Young children have imaginary friends as part of normal development.
